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On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

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Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#241

Post by dhosek »

jddj wrote: post #80
dhosek wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a similar thing with Hebrew numerals¹ where 15 and 16 are usually written as תו and תז to avoid what would otherwise be forms of the name of God. ⸻ 1. The Hebrew numeral system, like the Greek numeral system is an almost-decimal system in that different letters are used for each of the different values, but the letters change by place value as well as by their individual value, so, e.g., 21 is written כא whe…

Japanese changed a couple too. From memory the pronunciation/written form of 4(?) was changed in some cases because it resembled death

The only Japanese number form change I’m aware of is a special form for one (一) (and possibly two 二) to prevent them from being altered on checks into three (三), but I’m far from an expert.

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#242

Post by dhosek »

Adverblessly wrote: post #233
dhosek wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a similar thing with Hebrew numerals¹ where 15 and 16 are usually written as תו and תז to avoid what would otherwise be forms of the name of God. ⸻ 1. The Hebrew numeral system, like the Greek numeral system is an almost-decimal system in that different letters are used for each of the different values, but the letters change by place value as well as by their individual value, so, e.g., 21 is written כא whe…

Minor correction: that's טו and טז. אבגדהוזחט - count one through nine יכלמנסעפצ - count ten through ninety קרשת - count one hundred through four hundred so תו would be 406 while טו is 9+6=15

D’oh that’s what I get for trusting my mediocre Hebrew keyboarding skills. For those who don’t know the Hebrew alphabet, both ת and ט are commonly transcribed as T (the former often as TH, but it’s meant to be a German aspirated T sound rather than the English th).

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#243

Post by neilkk »

Manuel_D wrote: post #236
neilkk wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the only real connection between 'Germanic tribes' and the modern state of Germany is that people from the latter believe the former to be their forefathers. They are not genetically closer to them than other Europeans, nor do they speak the same language or call themselves the same word or have the same lifestyle or inhabit the same places. During the Yugoslav period, there was a minority group of Bulgarian migr…

No, there are continuities in language. It's changed over time, but it's still descended from those older cultures. French has it's roots in Frankish people that settled there in the migration period, with Latin and other influence. It's not just people arbitrarily claiming lineage. There are also specifics in culture and tradition, e.g. Christmas trees date back to pagan Germanic festivals.

Modern German is no closer to the language of a randomly chosen 'Germanic Tribe' than English, Prussian, Danish, Yiddish, Swedish, Czech, etc.

Most people living in what is now France would have spoken other languages than French well past the time of the Frankish people.

Literally all over Europe, and a lot of the world, people have trees at Christmas.

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#244

Post by mr_toad »

bell-cot wrote: post #166
ithkuil wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To her credit though she was one of the few Ptolemaic rules of Egypt who even bothered learning the Egyptian language

Yes- ish . Quoting a bit from Dr. Bret Devereaux, whose take on Cleopatra VII I linked a bit further down: > Let’s start with languages, because I think this fact can be presented in a somewhat distorted way. The language of the Ptolemaic court was Greek, initially Macedonian Greek (the Macedonians had a pronounced accent), though Plutarch notes that some of the later Ptolemies had lost their Macedonian accent (Plut.…

> imagine if King Charles was the first English king since George I and kings from the House of Hanover to bother to learn English

After the invasion of England by William the court spoke French for hundreds of years. I don’t know if or when they learnt English.

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#245

Post by tsunamifury »

nindalf wrote: post #171
tsunamifury wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Look at the other response. So much better than yours. You just call me dumb, not much I can respond to there. And the rest of your comment is barely coherent, can’t respond to that either. Awful.

Don’t lash out when you are hurt. It’s embarrassing.

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#246

Post by tsunamifury »

xandrius wrote: post #127
tsunamifury wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea I think it’s a fair argument that the last gasp of the Roman Empire ended in world war 1

If you forget Italian fascists trying to bring it back, otherwise you could push it to the end of WWII

Solid point.

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#247

Post by andirk »

bombcar wrote: post #217
mnw21cam wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quite like the hobbit calendar. 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 (or 6) extra days that don't belong to a month and are celebration days. Mid-year day and the leap day don't have a day of the week, so each date always is the same day of the week. https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Shire_Calendar

Days that aren't part of a month are such a elegant way to solve the problem. Even now 29 Feb shouldn't exist, it should just be "leap day" and have no numerical significance. Screw the computers, they can learn to adapt.

The Y29K Bug. That would fix the current "Don't Get Paid for A Day" trick that Leap Years do to salaried people.

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#248

Post by gsky »

mminer237 wrote: post #94
gsky wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indian Empire is older than Roman Empire if i'm not wrong and even America had emires before Europeans colonized. You need to read more history

??? What is the "Indian Empire"? The Mughal Empire? That lasted like 300 years.

Mughals were invaders just like europeans

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#249

Post by PlaneSploit »

bhasi wrote: post #136

This is relatively well-known in watch circles as the "watchmaker's four".

Surprised I had to go down this far to find this. Clockmaker's 4 / watchmaker's 4 is an aesthetic or balance thing more than a historical vestige. Source: own an Omega De Ville Hour Vision

Re: On clock faces, 4 is Expressed as IIII, not IV

#250

Post by froh »

nwiswell wrote: post #46
tadfisher wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't that also work with IXIVIII on the die? How do you print IX with yours? An improvement would be IXIVIII actually, then all combinations can be located in that string.

> How do you print IX with yours? You rotate XI 180 degrees.

there is no XI in XVIIIII though

ah nvadr spells it out:

VIIIIX

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39722131

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